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A factory worker, Douglas Quaid, begins to suspect that he is a spy after visiting Rekall - a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led - goes wrong and he finds himself on the run. Full summary » | Full synopsis »

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When Quaid retrieves his safe-deposit box, next to the United Federation of Britain 50 currency unit note with Barack Obama is a 1000 currency unit note with a picture of Loren Wiseman, father of director Len Wiseman.See more »

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Doug and Lori are fighting, Doug gets kicked into a set of stairs. A crash pad is clearly visible when Doug hits the stairs and seconds later is not there anymore.See more »

Fond memories of Paul Verhoeven's "Total Recall" kept coming back while
watching this remake. Arnold Schwarzenegger's screen presence was also
an added plus in the 1990 film, as well as the one-liners, Mars and of
course heaps of bloody violence. If you've seen the original, then you
know how it goes.

Len Wiseman's remake of the same name replaces Arnold with Colin
Farrell, in his first lead action role in years, while eliminating Mars
as the backdrop of the action and replacing it with an overpopulated
Earth where transportation from one corner to another occurs,
literally, straight through the center of the earth. The rugged
subterranean mazes of the red planet is replaced with dizzying
skyscrapers and lots of sleek, flying cars, not unlike Philip K. Dick's
own "Blade Runner" and "Minority Report".

Farrell can act and is definitely a strong action lead and it shows
here, as per the beautiful ladies Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel who
both show off brawn over beauty here. Alas, everything is taken way too
seriously in this version. I have fonder memories of the
Verhoeven/Arnold version where one-liners come post-Arnie-kill. Gone.
Certain characters are trimmed or even cut completely from the
original. Bryan Cranston's Cohaagen makes me miss Ronny Cox even more,
and Bill Nighy's resistance leader doesn't stand out compared to the
1990 film. The best thing the screenwriters did is to combine Sharon
Stone's and Michael Ironside's characters from the 1990 film into one,
and as portrayed by Kate Beckinsale, she kicks serious ass here.

The script is a near complete rehash of the original, save for the
setting and the final act of the film. The scene where Bokeem
Woodbine's character tries to convince Quaid (Farrell) where he's still
in a dream is certainly a standout scene which was very well done.
Alas, the majority of the movie is laced with action sequences and
sensational special effects (seriously, this is CGI porn) that may get
this film a nomination for Best Visual Effects this year. No kidding.
While the editing is fast-paced and the cinematography sleek (with a
little too much lens flare ala J. J. Abrams), the music score by Harry
Gregson- Williams was kind of bland in my opinion. It was just there,
does its job, and I didn't care. Where's Marco Beltrami; or even for
that matter his legendary mentor, the late, great Jerry Goldsmith when
you need them?

Director Wiseman has a knack for action sequences ("Underworld", "Die
Hard 4") and it shows aplenty here. Sadly the script could've been a
whole lot better, but then again, if they had set it on Mars it
would've been a shot-for-shot remake with better characters, but still
I would've loved to see action on the Red planet once again. The PG-13
rating is justified, and there are indeed little homages to the
original, but overall this remake is nothing more than a fast-paced,
popcorn munching good waste of time, with some really nice CGI to chew
on.

However, I'd rather watch the old one again. Arnie has a much stronger
screen presence than Farrell and it is much more ambitious and has more
heart than this sleeker, newer one.

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